Speedobilia

December '07

Feature Article from Hemmings Muscle Machines

Six Pack Salute
Michael Irvine • www.michaelirvine.com • 800-361-5484 • $140 for 18 x 24-inch image on a 22 x 28-inch print
There are two shows held annually that Mopar aficionados tend to flock to: the Mopar Nationals and Chryslers at Carlisle. Whether you own a Mopar or just admire them, capturing images to remember is always on everyone's mind at these events. It only seems fitting then, that Michael Irvine utilized a Mopar show as a backdrop for his newest, most color-intense painting, Six Pack Salute.
The limited-edition print (only 800 copies will be made) features Mopars from 1967 to 1971, including GTXs, Road Runners, Super Bees, Chargers, 'Cudas and even a Challenger, all awaiting the arrival of the main feature, the Superbird. If you're looking to spice up your garage, this image will captivate you for some time thanks to tons of little treasures hidden in the background and in reflections.
The reproduction prints are individually signed and numbered by Irvine, and they arrive with a certificate of authenticity. Buyers even have a choice of print number, if available, should you want to match the print number with the last three digits of your VIN.
COMP Cams retro logo hat
COMP Cams • www.compcams.com • 800-999-0853 • $12.95
You're off to the next car show or swap meet wearing your favorite gear--hat, shirt, even a jacket--which features the logo of the company whose products you've dumped into that big block under the hood for some extra pizzazz. The trouble is, your old hat is sun-faded and the stitching is coming apart.
COMP Cams has joined the legion of companies going retro, with a new black and white adjustable baseball-style hat sporting the COMP Cams retro logo. The hat is made from high-quality washed cotton twill, and features a Velcro closure in the back so that the unstructured hat can be adjusted to fit most cranium sizes.
In addition to the retro logo proudly displayed on the front, embroidered on the rear is a phrase that says it all for serious gearheads: "Horsepower Never Goes Out of Style," along with the words "COMP Cams" on the outer Velcro band. This is just the latest in a line of COMP Cams outerwear, all of which can be found on the company Web site.
Fuel & Guts
Motorbooks • www.motorbooks.com • 800-826-6600 • $50.00
Every passing day, our amazement grows at the fact that otherwise rational people once willingly strapped themselves into tangles of steel tubing, straddled a rear-end housing and raced, trying to peer around a screaming supercharger close enough for them to kiss. It wasn't an inherently safe pastime. By some estimates, 60 or more drivers died racing the first generation of front-engine Top Fuel dragsters during the 1960s. Driving one took a special measure of bravery, or at the very least, denial.
Recently off his well-received history of Edelbrock, historian Tom Madigan has put together this heavily illustrated volume, subtitled The Birth of Top Fuel Drag Racing, which consumes 242 large-format pages in hardcover. It's written in the style of an oral history, related by people who were there, including Tommy Ivo, Kent Fuller and our own Don Prudhomme, who's never been shy in admitting his own good fortune at surviving that lethal era. It's comprehensive, anecdotal and occasionally profane, very much in keeping with the outrageous subject matter.
Way too many drivers were lost trying to command these primitive, brutal race cars. Their actions stand today as some of drag racing's most stirring, jaw-dropping moments. It's great to know that this unforgiving era of madness has been chronicled firsthand before it was entirely too late.

This article originally appeared in the December, 2007 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines.